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Session 13
We Live in a Society 5 Flamerule(evening) - 16 Flamerule(afternoon) The Young Adventurers rest amongst the myconids before finally saying goodbye to Stool and setting off for Blingdenstone. The trip may be long--possibly twenty days according to Jimjar--but Kaia’s newfound affinity for the Underdark promises that they won’t go hungry. Several days pass uneventfully before they come across a nest of grell, who bravely attempt to kill (and presumably eat) Jimjar, but are unsuccessful. One grell escapes to no doubt show up at a later date as a mortal enemy. Once again our heroes show no interest in seeing what the monsters they have defeated might have in their lair and push on. Another five days pass without serious threat when Kaia, scouting ahead, finds a small campsite which is currently unoccupied. The fire was only recently put out and there are several small animals in cages, alongside usual campsite things like a bedroll and supplies. Kaia examines the animals, finding one is a two headed rat while the others appear to be a normal bat and two fire beetles. She uses the Stonespeaker Crystal to talk to the animals, discovering that the rat’s second head is a new development and all the animals were recently trapped by a “lizard thing.” The rest of the group catches up to Kaia and they decide to free the animals for some reason. While they are looking into that the camp owner returns and asks that they not free her animals. She identifies herself as Skriss, a troglodyte and a member of the Society of Brilliance. She states she is examining the effect of faerzress on animals as she thinks the magical energy may be what is transmitting the recent rise in madness across the Underdark. She has also been watching a nearby drow outpost, situated in a patch of faerzress, but the outpost has stopped sending out patrols; nobody has left for days now. Skriss begins to hint that she would like the Young Adventurers to come with her to investigate the outpost and they immediately offer to help with very little prompting. Sebastian also fills Skriss in on all the demon lords and related shenanigans the group has seen. Fargas, Eldeth, and Jimjar stay at the camp as Skriss wants a smaller group. The Young Adventurers head out to the drow outpost with Skriss leading the way. They are quickly able to gain entry to the outpost and find in the first room they enter several weak demons (manes) and what appears to be a drider. The drider, however, appears to have been constructed by surgery and magic rather than being a product of the Demonweb Pits. The creature is mutilated and appears to be in pain, but nonetheless is a formidable opponent (unlike the manes). The party then finds a captive bugbear who had been stuffed into a cage much too small for him. A nearby hobgoblin appears to have been tortured to death. They free the bugbear, who states they were captured by drow while patrolling. He is able to provide some information about the drow forces in the outpost, including that the weird, mangled driders first appeared four or five days ago. The bugbear’s gear is piled in the corner and he is allowed to collect his stuff and go (after Ralkor makes sure there’s nothing magical in there). The bugbear says he needs to rest for a bit first as he can’t actually walk after being confined in the cage. Nobody offers to heal him. The party finds that the door leading to the next room won’t open. The bugbear mentions that he sees drow come and go without keys all the time, but he doesn’t know how they open it. Kaia chops the hand off the drider they had earlier killed and successfully opens the door using the hand. This is entirely unnecessary as Kaia’s sword magically causes her to registered as a drow of House Mizzrym to wards and charms anyway. The door opens into a natural looking cave that opens into a shrine after a short distance. The shrine is obviously dedicated to Lloth and has recently been used in the makeshift drider operations, leaving it covered in blood and body parts. New images depicting triangles filled with swirls have been carved on the altar. Behind that altar stand a drow priestess and what appears to be a drow woman, along with one of the misshapen driders. The priestess claims that Lloth herself has directed the work that the party is interrupting while the second drow woman seems to melt and grow, turning into a yellowish blob of melted wax with multiple tentacles and a single huge eye. A fight ensues. Kaia, as usual, goes first and wrecks shit. The priestess is killed before her turn in initiative even comes up, which is too bad because she had some cool abilities. Unfortunately for the party the tentacle demon is actually far more dangerous. On its first turn it mind controls Kaia and on its second it puts Nespip down in two hits. Ultimately the party successfully kills the demon and the drider (with Skriss proving to be surprisingly competent as well). Unfortunately, just before the fight is over, there is a huge noise and the complex shakes. After the fight Skriss explores the way back, finding it has been caved in behind them. There is no obvious way out of the outpost, however the shaking exposed some cracks on the far wall of the shrine. The party is able to tear a hole in what turns out to be newer masonry blocking off a tunnel continuing on. We leave off here for now, the only way to go forward into whatever the drow saw fit to seal off.